Time To Talk About Quality

Written by: Laetitia VerdierJanuary 15, 2013

The dazzling speed at which the distribution and consumption of information has changed in the last 20 years is still blinding many of us when we think about content. We are aware of the information bubble, yet we keep feeding it and precipitating the feeling of information overload among our customers. In the belief we need to produce content to just be out there we seem to have forgotten the most basic principle of all: quality.

We keep hearing content is king followed by adjectives such as engaging, entertaining, community oriented, or interactive. Yet we seem to believe this features can be achieved through some sort of magic formula -such as sparkling buzz words or SEO tricks- which will turn an otherwise soulless and mediocre text into a wonder of Social Media. Well, that’s just not the way it happens.
We have been blinded by analytics and led to believe they dictate the mind of the consumer. And it is true to a degree. Analytics are a great tool. However it seems we have ceased to question the way we analyze the analytics or the conclusions we derive from them. Quantity and quality do not need to be at odds when we think about Social Media and making content to be passed around. But sheer quantity is a clear signal to bad content.

If we aim at creating value and not amounting to little more than spam clogging the Internet we need to go back to the basics of the trade. Understand the new dynamics closing the divide between traditional and mainstream media to take our standards to those of the most successful and demanding traditional outlets. In an era full of junk content, only those producing truly honest content, tailored from the beginning to give something to the consumer will reach their goals of engagement. The rest will gradually be left aside by spam filters.